vbsteffel wrote:
I watched a must see tv promo on youtube. During a friends promo it showed someone in a video store. Sorry I can’t remember who was who. It had a large Donkey Kong statue type thing in the video store. This was in a 1995. I typed in “NBC must see tv 1995” on youtube. Here is a list of some NBC shows on in 1995: Friends
Mad About You
Hope and Gloria
Madmen of the People
The Single Guy
Caroline in the City

Well, if Nintendo and NBC truly wanted a lot of people to see the Virtual Boy in one of the shows, then it makes sense that they would have chosen “Friends” to put it in, since that was one of the highest rated shows at the time. I really like that show, too, so I might just go ahead and watch the season that aired in 1995 and see if I can find a Virtual Boy anywhere.

Here are some more shots of the Virtual Boy behind George’s head in the Seinfeld episode.

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speedyink wrote:
Season 3 episode 9 on Frasier they show the virtual boy box when they’re in the toy store

Found that one, too. Given the fact that the Virtual Boy is shown right next to Frasier’s head as the camera is zoomed in as he goes to pick up the “Living Brain” toy, it seems that this was a definite, planned advertising spot for the Virtual Boy in the episode, supporting DogP’s conclusion that NBC was intentionally advertising the Virtual Boy in its shows at the time.

So, anybody find out what other shows aired on NBC around that time? The treasure hunt continues!

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vbsteffel wrote:
The episode “The foundation” is on Youtube. I had to see it again to be sure. Nice pic. Did you notice it before the post? I happened to see it on television.

Nope, I wasn’t aware of it prior to the post.

It was nice seeing the Virtual Boy make an appearance on such a famous television show.

vbsteffel wrote:
I saw a Virtual Boy on Seinfeld. It was season 8 Episode 1. “The foundation”. It was behind George in his apartment when the guests arrived. They wanted to start a foundation in honor of Susan.

I just spotted it, too.

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retronintendonerd wrote:
My vinyls FINALLY arrived! My envelope looked like someone lost it up their hoo-hah for a damn year but I finally got it. After MONTHS of waiting for these 2 tiny graphics, I can finally say this project is aesthetically done (gotta get the displays working again).

I finally present to you, the Virtual Girl!

Dude… that looks official and frickin’ awesome.

Looks like only three more people need to post on here that they got their surprises, then someone can post some pics of the goods.

Since I’m Greg’s brother, I got to see the surprise up close, and it is most impressive!

M.K. wrote:

Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.1a work on hardware, while versions 1.2 and 1.3 do not.

I have just tested version 1.3 on hardware and it works. You have probably used a wrong padding mode. If you are using Pad_VB.exe, then you have to use padding mode 3 to fill the ROM with duplicates.

Cool. Thanks!

DogP wrote:
I also painted one of my shells years ago: http://www.projectvb.com/painting.html .

There was also someone who painted theirs white (I don’t remember exactly what the deal was, but I kinda remember someone trying to sell it as a “RARE Prototype”).

DogP

I think I remember seeing that one for sale on Ebay. That paint job was so terrible. It looked like they tried to apply the paint with either a brush or roller.

DanB wrote:
Hm, I don’t know… I just converted the isx with lameboy’s tool. Do the earlier released versions of this demo work on hardware?

Versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.1a work on hardware, while versions 1.2 and 1.3 do not.

DanB wrote:
I didn’t remember about those, thanks 🙂

vbcvtisx doesn’t work for me (not even on the 1.2 version isx?) and ISX2ROM can’t handle it either. It appears it isn’t an isx file after all, but in vuexe format. I guess it has to be re-compiled by vucc to get an isx file. I haven’t set up my vucc environment yet.

However, I did use ISX2ROM to convert the regular 1.3 sample soft to a vb rom, and here it is. The pause screen has new graphics, and the entire rom seems to run faster than 1.2.

I can’t get this ROM to work on hardware. I just see a black screen. To be sure, my other padded ROMs work just fine.

duqtito wrote:
First post actually, even though I’ve been meaning to introduce myself. I’ve been assembling my collection since April when I got the nostalgia bug and bought a VB. At this point with getting a Display Only box for Mario’s Tennis last month, I’ve completed (I think) an entire boxed US collection. I may eventually get into Japanese stuff, but for now am working on how to display it in my office.

Added a new photo to add the two Nintendo Powers that seem to be parts of others collections. Both of these are from my personal subscription. Not sure how many times they survived getting tossed when they were in a nondescript box at my parents’ house, but i finally rescued them and realized what I had this summer.

Very nice US collection, which is indeed complete if you have all the manuals to go along with the boxes and games. It looks like everything is in very nice condition, too!

With the Virtual Boy’s small library of games, I think you will find yourself wanting to move into the Japanese stuff to get the most out of Virtual Boy. Most of the Japan-only games actually have very little Japanese text in them and can be played just fine without knowing any Japanese. Plus, V-Tetris and Space Squash can each be found for fairly cheap, and you can probably find Mansion of Insmouse CIB for a price that is a good bit less than what you likely paid for Jack Bros. and probably even less than what you paid for Waterworld. V-Tetris and Space Squash are definitely a lot of fun and are enjoyed by many, but while I and a few others on here love Mansion of Insmouse, many others are divided on that game.

virmonk wrote:
Holy Cow!!! Just saw this on the bay and figured some of you over here would want to know about it. Original store display unit, the big one!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Virtual-Boy-Floor-Store-Display-Unit-WORKS-GREAT-/131286895340?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

Looks like it would be about an 11-hour drive, one way, for me to pick up that puppy. Not out of the realm of possibility.

drunkencat wrote:
hi i just got my flash boy today and tryed to use the padder program to make file bigger i drag the rom to the window and when i let go it just closes but where does the file go am i doing somthing wrong?

It actually sounds like the padder is, indeed, working properly and that you might simply be losing track of the new, padded file.

Do you have the padder program located in the exact same folder as all of your unpadded Virtual Boy ROMs? If not, try to move everything to the same folder and only have this one folder opened on your computer screen. Then, whenever you drag and drop a Virtual Boy ROM’s icon over the icon of the padder, which is located in the same folder, a window should open and close very quickly, just as you described. You should then see the new, padded Virtual Boy ROM file right next to the original ROM file in the same folder. This new, padded file will contain the original Virtual Boy ROM’s name followed by “_pad” before the extension of “.vb”

thunderstruck wrote:
Nice to this release finally happening. My next game will be longer. I promise.

The manual is full of insider jokes. So make sure to check it out.

Great manual! Certain remarks in the The Controls gave me a good chuckle.

As for the Piranha characters, my guess is that Derek and Wesley must be the two brothers.

Here are high resolution scans of the front and back of the Virtual Jockey flyer.

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DanB wrote:

… What’s interesting though is a sticker on it that sais “BPS”. Could this be a hint as to who originally owned this kit? (A certain Faceball/Tetris developer) 😉

Or does it just mean “Battery Pack Storage”? 😛 …

Well, I believe that there are at least two other owners of VUE Debuggers on this site. Not sure if they have original controllers to go along with their units, though. If they do, and their controllers don’t have the “BPS” on them, then I’d say it would be good evidence that this truly did belong to Bullet Proof Software.

It would certainly make sense, then, as to why the original development team had a link cable, since they were working on 2-player Faceball. It would also make sense as to why this particular Debugger made it out of developer hands and into the wild, just as the original Faceball prototype cart did.

RunnerPack wrote:

Guy Perfect wrote:
My contact wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the word あたり

http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E3%81%82%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A&eng=&dict=edict&romaji=on

According to this page:

http://www.renshuu.org/index.php?page=grammar/individual&id=245

“にあたり” is the equivalent of “にあたって”

So it translates as:

“Starting to Use the VUE Debugger”

KR155E wrote:
I like the idea of us celebrating all together. How does the following sound?

Let’s make the entire next year the year of the Virtual Boy! The year in which we celebrate PVB turning 15 in January and of course the Virtual Boy’s 20th birthday the entire rest of the year.

It’s up to the community to do whatever they like to celebrate. Homebrew projects, highscore competitions, artwork competitions, remixes of VB game music, video productions, ROM hacks… anything.

We probably should have a special “channel” for this kind of stuff, maybe a separate forum or special forum tag?

Well, I consider July 21, 2015 to be the official “20th Birthday” of the Virtual Boy, since that will be exactly 20 years after the Virtual Boy’s launch in Japan. Therefore, those who plan to participate in the Virtual Boy’s 20th Anniversary High Score Competition should expect the requirements for winning such to be posted on that date.

I could probably hold another High Score Competition for the VB’s big 20th anniversary.

This time, the prize would be the whole Big 4 collection.

Of course, the requirements to win would be more stringent than last time.